Across the nation, hunters will take to the field Wednesday during the earliest general bird hunting season in the nation, and the only opening day shared by every state that has dove hunting.

This makes the dove opener the largest participatory outdoor event staged in the nation each year – probably the whole world. In California alone, some 60,000 to 70,000 hunters will take to the field, and nationwide the number is around 2.5 million.

Think about those numbers. The majority of television shows don’t draw that many viewers each episode. Not that many people attend any professional football team’s games in any given season, even if they make the Super Bowl.

You may know someone who’ll be going out next week. They’re likely going with friends or family, because dove hunting is a social event that, for a brief moment, brings this little slice of mankind back to their ancient roots as hunters/gatherers.

It’s also the event that kicks off the fall hunting seasons, and for those of us who wish these three or four months of fall were really six or seven months long, it’s a relief to finally be able to put the dog in the truck with a weekend’s worth of food and gear and meet hunting buddies around campfires glowing in the night and stare into the coals, hear stories, and anticipate the next morning’s hunt. It’s been too long.

The phone has been ringing all week in hunters’ houses such as mine, and we are all getting more excited by the day. My wife went to the store to make sure we had the marinade makings for our doves, and I was in the garage checking the shotgun shell inventory. I know my boys won’t think to buy shells, so I’d better make sure there’s plenty. Do they have their hunting licenses yet? That goes on the to-do list.

Blythe-Needles updates

In last week’s column, Leon Lessica said it was going to be one of the best dove seasons in a long time in the Imperial Valley, but since I wrote that, I started thinking back. I believe Lessica says that every hunting season – and he’s right every year. Doves are one of the most common birds in the country – the nationwide harvest of around 20 million birds each year doesn’t put a dent in the population that numbers in the billions.

While there have been thunderstorms flickering across the deserts at midweek, the severity hasn’t been enough to run off many birds, like thunderstorms have done in the past. At least Lessica didn’t think so. Everyone else seems to agree.

Further north, the reports from the Blythe and Needles regions were still pretty glowing, matching those from the Imperial Valley.

Wayne Pinkerton, the new, old owner of B&B Bait in Blythe – dove hunting central in this region – is back managing his shop starting Wednesday. While we were talking Thursday afternoon, he kept interrupting himself when a dove would fly past the bait shop.

“There are two more coming down 8th Avenue,” he’d say. Then four more would fly past, then a whitewing, and it would be “six more going in the other direction.” Finally he summed it all up by saying, “I think it’s going to be a good hunt.”

In the Needles region, Cliff McDonald said there had been few thunderstorms in the east Mojave desert and none along this stretch of the Colorado River.

“If it stays like this, there’s going to be good hunting in the Needles area and Mojave Preserve,” said McDonald, who heads up the volunteer crew that keeps wildlife water sources functioning in this part of the world. “I’m seeing lots of doves on every guzzler and desert spring I’ve visited in the last month, and I don’t think that’s going to change a whole lot before the opener.”

Then he added this clincher about one desert spring he refused to name: “There were so many doves there, you could get a limit with a single toss of a throw net.”

It was illustrative, but I don’t need to remind hunters that throw nets are not a legal method, do I?

Dove notes

The limit on doves is again 10 per day, 20 in possession after the first day. That means you can shoot only 10 doves opening day – even if you eat all 10 of your opening-day birds for lunch, and even if you have Arizona, Indian Reservation and California licenses. The limit is 10 per day. Period. Hunters must leave a feathered wing on their doves when transporting them home.

Eurasian collared doves can still only be hunted during the dove season, but there’s no limit again this year.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.